Budget Day!

Today was the budget meeting at Oxfordshire County Council and, as can be seen from the photo, there was already a lot of public interest when I arrived at County Hall at 8.45am this morning.

As Leader of the Opposition, it was my job to present the budget amendments of the Lib Dem group. There is a press release here, my budget speech can be found here and the amendments can be found here. We tried very hard to influence the Conservative Budget, particularly by trying to slow down the cuts in 2011-12 to give time to look at all the options for services like libraries and youth services. However, as the council comprises 52 Conservative councillors, 10 Lib Dem councillors, 9 Labour councillors, 2 Green councillors and 1 Independent councillor that was always going to be a tough task.

I should make special mention of Ana Ramos who presented a petition on behalf of Grove Library. The paper version had over 800 signatures and the e-petition reached 185 signatures.

BBC interview here (starts 04.42 mins).